The game of golf first centered around striking balls of worked wood around a course. In time, the wooden balls were surpassed in performance by leather-cover, feather-stuffed balls (“featheries”), which were in turn surpassed and replaced by gum-based gutta-percha balls (“gutties”). A century and more ago, balls with thread-wound rubber cores and dimpled covers came to dominate the sport. More modernly, advances in various components of golf ball construction—such as the number of pieces or layers, the materials incorporated therein, and the configuration and number of dimples—have led to improved performance characteristics. Such advances have addressed the constant question: “What would make a golf ball better?”
One challenge involved in making a better golf ball is to improve a golf ball's performance characteristics all the way from the tee to the hole. For example, various components of golf ball construction might be modified to make a ball that is less prone to spinning. The reduced spin may improve a golfer's long game (i.e., shots taken relatively far from a hole) by increasing distances achieved when striking the ball with a driver, such as at the tee. However, a ball that is less prone to spinning may at the same time worsen the golfer's short game (i.e., shots taken relatively near a hole) by hindering a ball's ability to quickly come rest after being struck with a wedge closer to the green. Conversely, modifying various components of golf ball construction to make a ball that is more prone to spinning might improve a golfer's short game by allowing a ball to quickly come to rest when struck with a wedge, but might at the same time hinder the golfer's long game by shortening the trajectory of the ball due to the increased spin on the ball.
There is a need to modify various golf ball construction components in such a way as to improve performance seen not just off the tee, and not just near or on the green, but “across the bag” or at all distances from the hole, i.e., to improve both the long games and the short games of golfers. Accordingly, there is a need to evaluate and provide a selection among various golf balls, or among various golf ball constructions, to assist in the specification and manufacture of golf balls that will improve a golfer's performance across the entire range of golf clubs. In a similar vein, there is a need to evaluate the performance characteristics inherent in a particular golfer's swings in order to assist in providing a selection of a recommended golf ball that may improve the golfer's performance across the entire range of golf clubs.